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World's Most-Visited Ancient Ruins

Lounging under a striped beach umbrella along the Mediterranean isn’t the main draw for travelers who come through Kusadasi, Turkey. Many are here to explore the ancient ruins of nearby Ephesus, including an amphitheater that still hosts concerts—much as it did 2,000 years ago.

“Ancient ruins give us a connection to the past that’s visceral,” says Mary Jo Arnoldi, chair of the anthropology department at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History. “This was a real place, and you can walk through it.” The world’s most-visited ancient ruins, among them Ephesus, can indeed bring history alive. They feed our curiosity and inspire us to contemplate the passing of time—and gawk at their sheer size.

“Ruins represent human achievement writ large,” says Lynn Meskell, director of the Stanford Archaeology Center. Perhaps none looms larger than the Great Wall, which snakes for 5,500 miles across China—a country of 1.3 billion increasingly travel-hungry people. The picturesque Badaling section is easily accessible from Beijing, and its combination of mass appeal, proximity, and infrastructure accounts for more than 9 million annual visitors, enough to propel the Great Wall to the No. 1 ranking.

Pop culture also fuels the romance of these ruins, whether it’s a highbrow novel set during an ancient Chinese dynasty or a blockbuster movie starring the Egyptian pyramids. Americans recognize other ruins as the model for our own monuments, notably those of the National Mall in Washington, D.C. “When we look at the Acropolis with its majestic Parthenon in Athens, we don’t just see a monument to Classical Greece,” observes John Papadopoulos, chair of the archaeology interdepartmental program at UCLA, citing it as a worldwide inspiration for democracy.

Such symbolic power can come at a price; some of the most-visited ruins are in danger of being loved too much. “We have the tremendous privilege of going to these places,” says Meskell. “We enrich our own lives by visiting them. But we need to promote responsible, respectful, and considerate tourism.”

Read on to discover which ancient ruins attract the most visitors—and heed Meskell’s advice so that these sites will continue to outlast us.

The Methodology: Our criteria were that ruins be several hundred years old (in the Americas, at least 600), human-made, and no longer actively used for purposes other than tourism and research. While Asia has hundreds of Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples that meet the first two standards, those sacred sites are still used for worship. People still live in Pueblo de Taos in New Mexico and the ancient Chinese villages of Xidi and Hongcun, so we omitted them too. We used numbers from verifiable sources, such as tourism boards, ministries of culture, archaeological surveys, and local newspapers.

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No. 1 Great Wall, Badaling, China

The Great Wall: a name so simple, yet so powerful. It stretches for 5,500 miles across China, and its most beautiful section happens to be easily accessible—within 70 miles of Beijing. While much of what is visible today was built during the Ming Dynasty (1368–1644), construction began on various sections as far back as 770 B.C. Credit goes to the million slaves and prisoners of war who carried blocks of granite, bricks, stones, and dirt on their backs up to the top of the ridgelines.

Source: China Odyssey Tours

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No. 2 Colosseum, Rome

When completed in A.D. 80, the arena held 50,000 spectators who watched mythology-based dramas and reenactments of land and sea battles as well as executions, fights-to-the-death among gladiators, and the ghastly slaughter of wild animals. The underground pits where those gladiators awaited their demise were opened to visitors in 2010 along with the 110-foot-high upper ring of seats, which offer panoramic views of the Eternal City.

Source: Italian wire service ANSA

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No. 3 Roman Forum, Rome

Mr. SATHAPORN SRICHUWONG

Annual Visitors: 5.1 million

The social center of Rome for 1,200 years beginning in the fifth century B.C., this 700-yard-long piazza has been both marketplace and government center. The ruins of sacred temples’ columns and friezes (whether dedicated to Saturn, the god of agriculture, or to the emperors Vespasian and Titus) hint at the level of grandeur on display here two millennia ago.

Source: Roman newspaper Il Messaggero

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No. 4 Terracotta Army, Xi’an, China

Dean Waites

Annual Visitors: 3.6–4.5 million

Discovered in 1974, these 700 life-size terracotta generals, infantrymen, archers, chariot drivers, and other warriors—as well as 400 horses and 100 chariots—are each unique, with distinct facial features, hairstyles, and clothing. Perhaps it’s the individuality of these clay statues that makes them so compelling. They were arranged in rows in covered pits as part of a necropolis for Emperor Qin Shi Huang. More are believed to still be buried, but work on removing and restoring the soldiers has been halted until a way can to found to keep their bright paint from fading in the air.

Source: China Odyssey Tours

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No. 5 Pyramids of Giza, Egypt

iStock

Annual Visitors: 4 million

As one of the original Seven Wonders of the World and certainly the symbol of Egypt, the Pyramids have venerability cred going back 4,500 years. Yet we still don’t know for sure how the ancient Egyptians built them, which only adds to their intriguing appeal to travelers. The three major tombs for pharaohs at this UNESCO World Heritage Site are now surrounded on three sides by the pressures of Cairo, a city teeming with nearly 11 million people.

Source: Egypt Tourism

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No. 6 Pompeii, Italy

Richard Boot / Alamy

Annual Visitors: 2.5 million

Pompeii gives visitors who walk its excavated stone streets a firsthand experience of first-century Roman life. The coastal town famously disappeared completely under ash and pumice during the sudden eruption of Mount Vesuvius in A.D. 79. Plaster casts made from “molds” created when ash-covered bodies disintegrated under the consolidated ash are moving reminders of the real people and animals that lived there.

Source: Current Archaeology

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No. 7 Acropolis, Athens

iStock

Annual Visitors: 2 million

The Acropolis refers to the cliff-like hill used as a citadel above Athens, and its most powerful monument is the hilltop Parthenon, a seemingly intact temple to the goddess Athena that’s the symbol of both Classical Greece and the origins of democracy. Built in the fifth century B.C., the Parthenon has lost many of its friezes and marble sculptures to plundering for European museums—with sporadic negotiations to try to get them back.

Source: Greek National Tourist Board

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No. 8 Efes (Ephesus), Turkey

Thirty years ago Ephesus was a nearly forgotten Roman ruin in an area of sparsely populated Turkish villages. Now much of the local economy is driven by it. The library and other buildings have been restored to give a sense of this large city 2,000 years ago, and concerts are still held in the 25,000-seat theater. Carved into a block in the marble road is what is believed to be an advertisement for a brothel.

Source: Turkish Ministry of Tourism & Culture

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No. 9 Teotihuacán, Mexico

Ingmar Prada

Annual Visitors: 1.9 million

The terraced Pyramids of the Sun and Moon dominate the ancient plaza of this sacred city built between the first and seventh centuries. At 250 yards on a side and 200 feet tall, the Pyramid of the Sun is the third largest pyramid in the world. But the Temple of Quetzalcoatl is more decorated—dedicated to the plumed serpent god that figures prominently in its sculptures and reliefs.

Source: SIIMT Inteligencia de Mercados

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No. 10 Hierapolis, Turkey

Greg Balfour Evans / Alamy

Annual Visitors: 1.6 million

The brilliant-white, terraced pools of the Pamukkale “cotton palace” hot springs have lured people to this area for well over two millennia and are the reason the Greco-Roman town of Hierapolis exists. Built just above the half-mile-wide, 65-foot-tall travertine wonder in 190 B.C., this ancient “spa town” has ruins of temples, a well-preserved theater, and a Sacred Pool where visitors float above broken Roman columns.

Source: Turkish Ministry of Tourism & Culture

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No. 11 Chichén Itzá, Yucatán, Mexico

The stepped terraces of the Pyramid of Kukulcan, also called El Castillo or the Castle, dominate the ruins of this jungle city. Mayans began construction in the seventh century, and Toltecs, who arrived three centuries later, added to it. Large plumed-serpent-head statues of Kukulcan or Quetzalcoatl fill the site, which is about 125 miles from Mérida, Cancún, and Riviera Maya on the Caribbean coast.

Source: SIIMT Inteligencia de Mercados

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No. 12 Ellora Caves, India

Dug along more than a mile of basalt cliff between A.D. 600 and 1000, these 34 temples and monasteries honor Buddha, Hindu gods, and the complete nonviolence of Jainism. Rather than actual caves, many are carved-out rock buildings filled with thousands of intricate reliefs and sculptures.

Source: Archaeological Survey of India

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No. 13 Hadrian’s Wall, England

When the Roman army couldn’t defeat the “barbarians” in the north of Britain by A.D. 122, Emperor Hadrian built this stone wall slightly south of the current English-Scottish border to keep them out. Today, among the “barbarian” Scots, Hadrian’s Wall remains a source of pride about their undefeatable spirit. The 84-mile-long Hadrian’s Wall Path National Trail parallels the Wall.

Source: Visit England

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No. 14 Roman Baths, Bath, England

Charles Cuthbert

Annual Visitors: 1.1 million

The Celts first declared these hot springs sacred and dedicated them to their goddess Sulis. Then, in A.D. 43, the Romans arrived, co-opted Sulis into their goddess Minerva, and built the spa town Aquae Sulis with the baths complex and the Temple of Sulis Minerva at its heart. Later renamed Bath, the city built public buildings in the Neoclassical style during the 18th century.

Source: Association of Leading Visitor Attractions (ALVA)

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No. 15 Longmen Grottoes, China

Buddhas and Bodhisattvas carved into 1,350 caves and 750 niches along the limestone bank of the Yi River form thousands of examples of sophisticated Chinese art from the fifth through the ninth centuries. Some are more than 25 feet tall, and the total number is estimated to be 110,000. One cave even displays numerous carved medical prescriptions.

Source: China Odyssey Tours

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No. 16 Stonehenge, England

People see what they want to see at this mysterious circle of prehistoric megaliths that were erected 6,000 years ago and may or may not have astronomical significance. An icon of paganism for druids, of feminism for those who favor matriliny, and even of extraterrestrials for sci-fi fans, this enigmatic site 70 miles from London gets inundated on Midsummer’s Day, the summer solstice.

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No. 17 Tulum, Yucatán, Mexico

Surrounded on the north, west, and south by walls and on the eastern side by the Caribbean Sea, this Mayan city—which reached its height in the 1200s—has an open, airy feel. The temples, walls, frescoes, and carvings of Tulum (originally named Zama, meaning “sunrise”) have been battered by salty sea air and hurricanes over the centuries and lack the crisp lines of other Mayan ruins. However, a prime Riviera Maya location makes it easily accessible to tourists.

Source: Turner PR

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No. 18 Machu Picchu, Peru

iStock

Annual Visitors: 1 million

You can take a quick train ride, or approach as the Incas did: by hiking the 27-mile stone-paved trail they built to reach this city on a 7,972-foot-high ridge above the Urubamba River. Machu Picchu looms as a dream trip for many travelers and seems more ancient than it actually is; construction began comparatively recently (around A.D. 1400). After a million visitors in 2011 for the 100th anniversary of its “discovery” by researcher Hiram Bingham—and concerns voiced about the site’s preservation—authorities may limit future visitors to 2,500 a day or 912,500 per year.

Source: Peruvian Times; Smithsonian

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No. 19 Canyon de Chelly National Monument, Arizona

Digital-Fotofusion Gallery / Alamy

Annual Visitors: 828,145

Native Americans have lived in this steep-walled red-rock canyon for nearly 5,000 years, and 800 years ago they built protected homes in caves at the bottom of the cliffs. The national monument is almost completely on Diné (Navajo) tribal lands so visitors must hire a Diné guide for all trails except the one leading down to the spectacular White House Ruins. (The canyon got its odd name because the Diné called the canyon Tséyi’, meaning “canyon,” and pronounced it “say-ee,” which morphed into “de Chelly,” pronounced “da-shay.”)

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No. 20 Angkor Wat, Angkor Archaeological Park, Cambodia

Joson / Corbis

Annual Visitors: 804,760

Part of Angkor Archaeological Park, which contains ruins dating between the 9th and 15th centuries of the Khmer Empire, the Angkor Wat temple was originally dedicated to Hindu gods and cosmology. Even though it eventually became a Buddhist pilgrimage site, the temple’s style still reflects a strong Indian influence—and reflects beautifully in the water at its edge.

Source: Asia Tour Advisor

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No. 21 Masada, Masada National Park, Israel

Near the end of the first century B.C., Herod the Great, King of Judaea, built an opulent three-tiered palace cascading down from the top of this natural plateau 1,300 feet above the desert. Roman mosaics, wall paintings, cisterns, bathhouses, and military barracks remain, protected by the dry climate and isolation. But Masada is most famous for the survivors of the Jewish Great Revolt who took it over in the year A.D. 66 and held off Roman soldiers for five years.

Source: WEILL

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At a crossroads of the Silk Road, Buddhist monks dug 492 caves out of rock and carved more than 2,000 sculptures that they embellished with clay and paint. Over a millennium (6 to 16 centuries ago), the monks painted murals across 11 acres of the caves’ walls. They are astonishing not only in scope, but in beauty: five levels of cave art reflecting Buddhism, local history, and daily life.

Source: China Odyssey Tours

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No. 23 Knossos, Crete, Greece

ZooMMER Travel Photography / Alamy

Annual Visitors: 705,305

Plato’s lost continent of Atlantis may have referred to this Bronze Age Minoan city; it was destroyed possibly by the massive explosion of the volcano on the island of Santorini around 1500 B.C. What’s left are restored ruins, including the so-called Palace of Minos, with finely detailed frescoes depicting dolphins, fish, and griffins as well as people walking past flowers.

Source: Greek National Tourist Board

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No. 24 Petra, Jordan

Vittorio Sciosia / Alamy

Annual Visitors: 629,864

We have an Arab group known as Nabataeans to thank for the magnificent Treasury and 500 other tombs, temples, and monuments carved in fine detail into rose-colored cliffs along a narrow gorge. A thousand years ago this once-vibrant city sat at a crossroads of incense, spice, and silk trade routes, and it reflects a melting pot of cultural influences from the Romans, Greeks, Arabs, Egyptians, and Phoenicians.

Source: Jordan Tourism Board

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No. 25 Montezuma Castle National Monument, Arizona

SuperStock / Alamy

Annual Visitors: 573,731

Don’t be misled by the name: neither castle nor anything else having to do with the Aztec ruler from central Mexico, this five-story, 20-room structure was built into a cave 70 feet up the cliff-face by the Ancestral Puebloan people (sometimes called the Anasazi). Short T-shaped doorways—which kept heat in and drafts out—were put into what is one of America’s best-preserved cliff dwellings, constructed 800 years ago.

Source: U.S. National Park Service

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No. 26 Mesa Verde National Park, Colorado

Courtesy of NPS

Annual Visitors: 572,329

These Ancestral Puebloan cliff dwellings—built of sandstone with mud mortar between the 6th and 12th centuries—are some of the largest and best preserved in North America. They also have red, tan, and white plaster walls that depict geometric designs, people, handprints, and animals such as mountain sheep and birds. The colors may have represented clan designations.

Source: U.S. National Park Service

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No. 27 Myra (Demre), Antalya, Turkey

Lycian tombs with square columns carved into limestone cliffs during the fourth century B.C. look like houses bunched together. They rest on the cliff above a well-preserved Roman theater with a double-vaulted corridor. However, the ancient city is most famous for its restored 9th–11th-century church dedicated to a local-boy-made-good: St. Nicholas, better known as Santa Claus.

Source: Turkish Ministry of Tourism and Culture

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No. 28 Pergamum (Bergama), Izmir, Turkey

(c) Richard T. Nowitz / CORBIS

Annual Visitors: 536,000

Izmir is now the closest major city to Pergamum, an ancient Hellenistic cultural center whose acropolis rises 800 feet above the valley and includes marble temples to Athena and Trajan, a Greek theater, and a library with 200,000 volumes. Across the valley, in the second century A.D., Galen, one of antiquity’s most famous physicians, practiced at a major medical center, the Asclepion.

Source: Turkish Ministry of Tourism and Culture

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No. 29 Troy (Truva or Troas), Çanakkale, Turkey

Troy was immortalized in Homer’s The Iliad, which tells the tale of the city’s woes circa 1183 B.C., but it wasn’t until the late 19th century that its location was found. Visitors make their way in broad daylight (no more sneaking about) to see a 30-foot-tall Trojan Horse replica with windows, plus sections of the real city’s walls that remain above the historical Plains of Troy.

Source: Turkish Ministry of Tourism and Culture

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No. 30 Delphi, Greece

Revered by the ancient Greeks as the center or “navel” of the world, this beautiful mountainous sanctuary has been considered sacred since the Neolithic period 6,000 years ago. Worshippers built temples to Apollo, Athena, and other gods as well as terraces and treasuries housing votive offerings (some now reconstructed). But the famous oracle reached its greatest influence between the sixth and fourth centuries B.C.

Source: Greek National Tourist Board

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No. 31 Gaochang, Xinjiang, China

An oasis city along the Silk Road at the base of the aptly named Flaming Mountains and the edge of the scorching Taklamakan Desert, this western Chinese center of culture, economics, and politics thrived from the first century B.C. until the 14th century. Modeled after Xian in layout, most of the city’s outer and inner walls and some reconstructed buildings remain today.

Source: China Odyssey Tours

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No. 32 Ajanta Caves, India

Buddhist monks used hammers and chisels 15 to 21 centuries ago to dig 30 caves—each with inner rooms—into rock cliffs overlooking a river gorge. They embellished these monasteries and places of worship with intricate wall paintings and delicate carvings of Buddha and bodhisattvas on walls and columns. The magnificent art also gives insights into Indian fashion, jewelry, musical instruments, and customs of the time.

Source: Archaeological Survey of India

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No. 33 Cobá, Quintana Roo, Mexico

John Mitchell / Alamy

Annual Visitors: 400,641

This 2,000-year-old Mayan city with the tallest pyramid on the Yucatán peninsula was the hub for a system of 46 raised sacbe or “white roads” made of rocks and compacted gravel covered with plaster and totaling around 100 miles. Five lakes or sinkholes called cenotes surround the site, where jungle trees reach 100 feet in height.

Source: Turner PR

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No. 34 Perge (Perga), Antalya, Turkey

Images & Stories / Alamy

Annual Visitors: 399,805

Fields, greenhouses, and the suburbs of Antalya now surround what’s left of Perge, but dial back two millennia and you’d find a thriving Roman city. Alexander the Great marched through, and later the Romans took it over and built its baths, fountains, 200-foot-long square agora, 12,000-seat theater, and 60-foot-wide colonnaded boulevard. The site’s also known for its unusual circular stone gate-towers built in a combined Greek-and-Roman style—and for St. Paul’s two visits.

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World's Most-Visited Ancient Ruins

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